Biography of Marcos Zimmermann

Marcos Zimmermann was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1950. He studied cinematography at the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía in Buenos Aires and started his professional career as still photographer for feature films. For several years he lived in Rome, where he worked as a freelance photographer, his work being exhibited in various European countries. Since 1989, he has been working in Argentina, where he has so far published twelve books of photographs exploring the identity of his country.

Marcos Zimmermann has become a relevant figure in Argentine photography, having been awarded the “Fundación El Libro’s Prize” for the Best Argentine Art Book and the “Golden Pyramid Prize” for the Best Photographic Work of the Year.

Marcos Zimmermann in his own words:On a turn of that winding road I found a huge stone, oval and smooth as a whale’s back. I rested on it and fell asleep. I dreamed of deserts grey with dust, tangled forests and long roads joining tiny villages spread over those endless landscapes. But I also dreamed that the stone on which I slept was not really a stone but pasty mortar formed by the superimposed dreams of those who had once slept there. And that if I could leave my dreams there, one day others would be able to lay their dreams on mine.

My work is the result of traveling thousands of miles across Argentina, with the sole objective to show some features of its national identity, sometimes hidden or other times lost. During these journeys, I have often asked myself how to translate into photographs the infinite worlds contained within our country and which I have encountered along the way.

But we photographers wander through the visible world, trying to find the soul of a place, a person, a thing. That is why my photographs do not attempt to describe only the beauty of Argentina. Instead, they emphasize some characteristics of a still unfinished country, united by signs hidden within a landscape or in a face.

I seek to record those presences that could be found in hundreds of places within our country, which make us what we are and will remain forever in the heart of one who who has seen them.